on focus

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 | knitting, musings, sweaters

Thanks to everyone for your generosity – today I was able to donate $1000 to MSF! I have to wait a little bit for my credit card to clear up to donate more, but it’ll keep on coming. I’m planning to take a look at the end of the month and see what more I can send off.

The yarn above is three different balls that I wound the other night, for three different new projects. Somehow I’m feeling a bit lacking in the sweater department at the moment – I tossed (donated) a bunch of sweaters when I moved and I’m sort of feeling the wardrobe gap. What I really need is some neutral coloured sweaters, so I tossed the stash for awhile and came up with these.

Top one is Colinette Jitterbug for a lighter weight version of a side-to-side cardigan I knit awhile back (you know I don’t think I ever blogged the finished version, I’ll have to do that).

Bottom left is Handmaiden 4ply cashmere, less blue and more grey in real life. I only have 5 skeins which might be a bit tight for a sweater, but we’ll see. I might do a pullover instead of my standard cardigan.

Bottom right is some label-less, DK weight merino that I bought at Rhinebeck in 2008. It’s super light and fluffy, really like a handspun with a really wholesome, rustic tweedy look to it. I’ve already cast on for a simple cardigan! My goal is to knock out a couple of really basic sweaters for everyday wear, since that’s what I seem to be lacking.

Of course, it isn’t like I don’t have lots of other things to knit! One of my students asked me a few weeks ago how many projects I have on the go at once. Current answer is way too many, obviously. In my sweater-knitting mood I even dug up this brown Casbah sweater which has been sitting in a bin for over a year! The body and upper yoke are done and I just need to knit the buttonbands, and the sleeves down from a provisional cast on.

I know I can’t just go casting on for more sweaters since then I won’t be able to finish any for awhile, and that’s not useful at all. So I’m going to try and buckle down and get some WIPs off the needles.

Aaaaand…..GO!

8 Comments to on focus

1 Seanna Lea
January 21, 2010

I will join you in the finish something camp. I still haven’t finished a sweater that I started just after Rheinbeck 2008. There really isn’t a good excuse out there!

2 Rachel
January 21, 2010

OH Wow….such a great feeling to donate to such a worthy cause. Good for you!

3 Maryse
January 22, 2010

Ouh, nice sweaters-to-be!

4 Wendolene
January 22, 2010

MSF has had some wonderful help. Can’t wait to see those UFOs become FOs!

5 Liz
January 22, 2010

I think the theme for this year should be finishing. Also a tutorial about top-down sleeves would be greatly appreciated.

6 Knittripps
January 23, 2010

I would love to cast on for a cozy new sweater. I don’t seem to do very well with more than a couple of WIPs (and actually I only seem to be able to focus on one at a time).

7 saffron knits
January 25, 2010

[...] So I’ve purchased patterns that I was going to buy anyway and discovered other patterns that I might not otherwise have considered. I was amazed to see that Cosmicplutoknits has already donated $1,000 from these sales. [...]

8 Cirilia
January 26, 2010

That wool looks familiar…it is one of my favorites! Too bad I totally effed up the short row shaping on the back neck of this cardigan. It looks like a toe rising up out of my back. D’oh!

http://www.ravelry.com/projects/skrillaknits/wooly-goodness